Appletree Answering Service

How do you communicate and educate 400 people across 12 sites nationwide?  You go on a Road Show!

I know it seems silly, but I will tell you, aside from the topic of my traveling expedition, it is as real and worth while as any project I have worked on.

The overwhelming objective that came to light pretty quickly after speaking to a few of our front line agents was they were not aware of the company’s goals, how they impacted those goals and the importance of their role within the company.  So with those initiatives in mind, I created a presentation that was not only informative, but drew from real examples in their everyday lives and experiences at Appletree, and tried to make it fun. 

The presentation kicks off with a very clear description of the company’s goals, the respective site level goals and drills down into how each individual person impacts those goals.  We talk about initiative, attitude, respect and the tangibles, like showing up to work on time, being efficient on the phones and taking accurate messages.  The combination of communication, education and tying the two together seem to be the missing piece of the puzzle.

We expect a lot from our people, and work towards aggressive goals to service our customers well.  In my experience, I have found the more you share with people, the more apt they are to feel part of the big picture.  A company is only as successful as each of its individual employees; it’s my job to arm them with the tools and information necessary to be just that.

This blog was written by guest Blogger Candy Myura.

I am often asked the difference between a Call Center and a Telephone Answering Service.  To be frank the lines have been very blurred in recent years but let me offer some insight into how Appletree segments it’s business between Call Center and Answering Service.  One hint, it is not by customer size!

It really comes down to the complexity of the customer needs.  We have very large customers that have very simple name, telephone number, message type needs, and we would clasify them as traditional Answering Service.  They are processed on our state of the art call center platform, and have access to all the same services and features, it is just that their needs are simpler.

In contrast to that we have some small customers that have highly customized needs.  As an example we have an emergency response account that responds to tractor trailer accidents that occur within their fleet.  There are a multitude of notifications and forms that must be completed when there is an incident, and we have built out a complete call handling script to cover all possible combinations of events.  The script took over 100 hours to build, yet this customer averages about 5-10 calls PER YEAR!  Certainly not a big customer in terms of call volume, but definitely a Call Center type of account.

Essentially, the Telephone Answering Service Industry, in partnership with our equipment vendors, have brought high level Call Center type services to companies of all shapes, sizes and configurations.  We are proud to service members of the Fortune 50, many of the Fortune 500 as well as sole proprietors and thousands of small businesses.  At any level of sophistication…

Have a great week.

I am the President for the National Amtelco Equipment Owners Association and in that capacity I write a monthly column for our newsletter.  The overall topic of this month was Customer Service.  I really had to stop and think about the state of Customer Service today and how it fits into an overall business strategy.  It is sad but true that delivering an above average level of Customer Service has become a competitive advantage!  Deliver extraordinary service and books will be written about you…

Why has it gotten to this point?  I get the sense that a variety of factors have led us to this point.  At or near the top of the list is the pace at which we move today.  We are in a 24/7/365 world.  I know because my company helps power that world.  We get the strangest and most routine calls at 3am, at times you would think it was midday on a Tuesday.  Customers have come to expect instant access, not just to information but to people.  That means you need to be on your Customer Service game around the clock.  30 years ago this was pretty much unheard of, but today it is the standard.

Another factor in the demise of service is the number of customer touchpoints that must be managed.  It used to be phone call, letter (snail mail) and face to face.  Now there are a wide variety of channels customers use to make contact, and many of them are difficult to manage in real time because they require someone to “notice” them.  Web chat, email, voicemail, etc. are at times more passive and require tightly defined systems to deliver a high level of service.  Training costs and challenges increase exponentially as well.  The skill sets required to serve in this new world are more diverse.  Written and Oral communication skills are now a must, and much harder to find in the employee pool.

The upside to all this, for the companies that crack the Customer Service Code, is a huge competitive advantage!

Have a great week!

I am just back from a 2 day Sales and Marketing Summit that was cohosted by Fortune Small Business Magazine and Verne Harnish of Gazelles (Gazelles.com). What an amazing 2 days. They brought in an array of great speakers and delivered excellent and timely content. The networking was very good and you can always count on some great peer sharing when Verne gets a group of entrepreneurs together!

There are lessons everywhere about the differences among people, customer service, sales and innovation. In my role I have to travel a great deal, often three or more weeks per month on the road. Therefore I have been identified by my principle airline as one of their most “frequent” customers. While we could debate the merits of whether or not to stratify your customers for hours we will set that argument aside since the airlines spend millions to stratify their customers. It works too, because with the perks I receive I am VERY loyal to my particular airline. But I can tell you it is a false loyalty. Given any opportunity to get a better experience elsewhere I will take it in a heartbeat. But as of now they have me in golden handcuffs with frequent ugrades, free trips and special extras.

Where they fail me though is in service. They spend all this money to trap you as a customer and then they fail at the most critical part. For the most part things are uneventful when I fly them. They lose my bags (they say “delay”) about 30% of the time when I check bags, but I have grown accustomed to that and rarely check bags. More often than not things go well. But let me tell you when it goes south it goes so far south that I am often found shaking my head and cursing their existence. Here it is, they know I am in their top tier of customers, they spent millions to identify that and create loyalty. Then, when they get the chance to serve me during a bad experience they completely fail. They use words like “policy” and “nothing else I can do”. I am often left so disgusted that I use their competitors for a few months and forgo all my extra perks, only to return. I guess the golden handcuffs are working, but I can tell you I am not happy.

Many times what they would need to do to make me happy would be so ridiculously simple a 3 year old could figure it out, but then policy rears it’s ugly head and the answer is NO to my simple request. Next time you travel take the chance to learn some lessons about business and service and reflect back on your own company. Are you creating these experiences and don’t even know it? I ask myself this question all the time. We fight like hell to avoid it but I am sure it is happening. If you have any experience with Appletree that sounds like the above I would like to hear about it personally. My email is jratliff@appletreeanswers.com.

Have a great week.

Appletree is joining the blog world! As an innovator in the marketing arena for our industry I am embarrassed that we are so late to the blog party. In our research we have found there are a multitude of reasons to actively participate in the blogosphere, not the least of which is communication with stakeholders. Customers, employees and key vendors are all engaged in research and interaction with related companies.

Appletree Answering Service launches company blog to promote employee and customer education and communication.